Europe confronts a rising tide of refugees

By
Emily Backus, Special to The Christian Science Monitor /
April 2, 1999

KUKES, ALBANIA

Once again in the 20th century, Europe is being tested on its ability and political will to cope with a wave of refugees.

Yesterday, Germany - unwilling to accept any of as many as 500,000 ethnic Albanians fleeing the war in Kosovo - held an emergency international meeting near Bonn to quickly send resources to the Balkans to keep refugees in the region.

In a province where the entire population is little more than 2 million, the pattern of action of Serb forces in Kosovo recalls the refugee wave triggered by the 1992 Bosnian war in which Germany took in more than 350,000 Bosnians, the most of any country in Europe.

The current wave from Kosovo has created a volatile situation along national borders. Northern Albanian border towns like Kukes, Kruma, and Bajaram Curri until recently served as KLA base camps for mounting guerrilla attacks on Serb forces.

In the past few months, however, Serb forces mined the border and evacuated southern Kosovo villages where KLA soldiers once found shelter on their way north. Townspeople in Kukes and international relief workers report that dozens if not hundreds of KLA members have been stuck for more than a month on the Albanian side of the border.

A Serb ambush killed 14 KLA soldiers three days ago when a band of 30 tried to cross the border, according to Ramiza Sinonaj, a young KLA soldier in Kukes. Other such incidents are being reported.

Town locals and international observers believe that the Serbs have a network of spies providing intelligence on KLA movements to facilitate the capture of KLA soldiers.

NATO airstrikes marked the beginning of a new phase of Serb aggression against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Refugees say that Serb military, police, and paramilitary troops are acting in concert and appear to have progessed from rural villages to larger towns.

The first wave of refugees were from villages in the southern and western regions of Kosovo.

Within the past few days, the exodus has included inhabitants of the towns of Prizren, Jakova, and Pec. Wednesday night residents were being driven from Pristina.

"They followed our every step with guns and knives," said Pristina resident Nerita Gashi as she huddled under a blanket at the Morini border crossing, "We didn't want to give up our houses."

"The idea of autonomy is dead," says Owen O'Sullivan, the head of the Kukes regional office of the OSCE.

He says the ethnic Albanians have been pushed out to such an extent that they will have little power or even a presence in Kosovo when the Serbs have completed their current campaign of terror.

Today, refugees wait for hours at the Kukes post office for an opportunity to telephone for help from relatives abroad.